Monday, June 25, 2012

multitude monday


Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that is a favorite of mine. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing, gifted writer and an inspiration!

"One Thousand Gifts"::
2302. day camp for Anna
2303. a fun night with a couple girlfriends :: laughter and a chick flick
2304. Joe's first day of archery
2305. Anna's first day of soccer
2306. Kirb home again :: for an extended stay this time!
2307. snuggling with Joe first thing in the morning before anyone else is awake
2308. my monkeys climbing trees
2309. a good 5K race
2310. packing Jacob and Lydia for camp {and the fact that they mostly pack themselves and we just double check makes it extra-great!!}
2311. having my clothesline functional once again
2312. a perfect summer day
2313. a fun housewarming party for good friends with a beautiful, perfect new home
2314. having church at home {they van needs some work}
2315. two kids safely dropped off at camp for the week
2316. family bike ride
2317. TONS of fun old cars in town for the weekend :: sitting on Snelling watching them drive by. a few even honked their fabulous horns {horns sounded so much better in the 50's and 60's. way more unique than they are now}
2318. an evening spent at the park
2319. organizing 5 kids worth of came-home-on-the-last-day-of-school papers
2320. crafting
2321. when your kids do things that surprise you and bless your socks right off
2322. a great husband who supports, encourages and loves me when I'm not doing so great {and when I am}
2323. prayer
2324. the funny things our kids say, that make my day

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

no. 2

I ran my second 5K yesterday morning. It was the "Run for the Roses" race, which is part of Roseville's annual Rosefest. Running it was kind of a last minute decision. When I checked the weather on Friday afternoon, the Saturday morning forecast looked beautiful, so I decided I'd give it a go. The race started at 8 on Saturday morning, so I got there about 7:15 to register. I got my bib and my official shoe-lace race timer thing, took a last potty break and headed to the starting line. There was a 5K and a 10K, as well as a 10K "Roll for the Roses" that people did on roller blades. The "rollers" started 5 minutes before the runners. All the runners started together and then the 5K and 10K routes diverged a ways down the road. Not too far into the race I picked two ladies :: one I was NOT going to let cross the finish line before me and one that {although a bit of a challenge} I was going to work hard to beat. The first lady has worked out at the same Y as me for years, and although I haven't ever had a conversation with her and don't know her, I remembered that I ran pretty much neck and neck with her in my 5K last month, and so I was determined to beat her. The 2nd lady was a little ways ahead of me for most of the race and so, I figured, she would be a good challenge and push me a little harder. Shortly after the first water break, a particularly good song came up on my iPod and made me cry. Now, I'm a cryer, there's no doubt about it, but I wasn't expecting this. It kinda hit me out of nowhere. Nice, just what I wanted, to be crying mid-race. Then, right before the finish, a woman just ahead of me ran by her husband and kids who were near the finish cheering her on and she grabbed her little guy's hand {he was probably 3 or so} and ran the rest of the way with him. So, not surprisingly, I started crying again. Perfect. So very me! I came to the finish line {with one shoe untied -- it came untied when I was nearly at the end and I figured I was safe to finish before I tied it. Thankfully, I was right and didn't trip or anything} ahead of both my two goal ladies {whoo hoo} and more than a minute ahead of my time from last month. So, I was excited about all that. However, on the downside, I did get beat by the first two 10K finishers. {Turns out they run twice as fast as me. Super!} And also, there was a lady just on my tail that I overheard telling someone that she was a great-grandma. Holy cow! So, there you have it. My second 5K is in the books!

Monday, June 18, 2012

multitude monday


Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that is a favorite of mine. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing, gifted writer and an inspiration!

"One Thousand Gifts"::
2278. safe travels for Kirb
2279. fun week at day camp for Rebekah, Lydia and Joe
2280. book club :: fabulous book, yummy treats, favorite friends and a break from single-parenting
2281. soccer games
2282. TONS of rain and still a completely dry basement :: praise God it's all doing what it is supposed to do
2283. continued basement progress
2284. new windows
2285. paint on the walls
2286. 70 year of grandpa Roger {my father-in-law}
2287. Kirb and Beka going up to surprise him for his birthday
2288. friends
2289. a beautiful night and a long walk with Rebekah and Sara
2290. kids, waterballoons and a trampoline {a really fun combination!}
2291. making it, problem-free, through our week without our dad/husband
2292. Kirb getting to enjoy dinner with some good friends {who now live in Canada} while he was traveling for work
2293. another meeting with an old friend while Kirb was in his part of the world -- unplanned, Kirb walked into the building where he works and guess who was standing right inside the door, took a long look, smiled and opened his arms for a big hug? What a blessing that Keith had some free, un-scheduled time when Kirb happened to be in his "neighborhood".
2294. antibiotics for Sara's month-long, really nasty diaper rash :: finally a bit of relief!
2295. a good 7-year check up for Joe
2296. flowers
2297. beautiful summer days :: glorious, sunny days and cool evenings
2298. Father's Day and all the wonderful father's in my life :: my dad, my husband, my brother . . .
2299. being reminded of a fun piece of trivia that I knew, but had forgotten :: Charles Schultz {of Peanuts comics fame} was baptized in our church as a teenager, as the nearby church he attended didn't have a baptismal. How cool is that?
2300. resolution to Joe's t-ball team being cancelled for the summer due to low registration :: he's going to do archery at the Y and is super excited! {we will not be putting his name in for the Hunger Games, however, so never fear}
2301. a good old-fashioned thunderstorm to lay awake listening to and watching {fabulous thunder and lightning!}

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

Monday, June 11, 2012

multitude monday


Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that is a favorite of mine. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing, gifted writer and an inspiration!

"One Thousand Gifts"::
2251. kids rolling down grassy hills
2252. a great dinnertime discussion following by the kids praying for each other
2253. field day :: potato sack races and tug-o-fun
2254. the escape found in reading a good book
2255. the closing of a really great chapter of life :: 3 years of watching Vince :: what a blessing!
2256. Joe washing dishes
2257. Sara's ever-expanding vocabulary :: I can barely keep up with her new words
2258. waking up to birds singing a beautiful song {loudly!} outside my window
2259. a full decade of Lydia :: Happy Birthday LJ!
2260. Anna asking me :: "Mom, how do you spell 'I love Lydia and I love everyone in our whole family except the mean people.'?" :: silly girl
2261. Sara telling me "dress off!" when I was changing her clothes
2262. an amazing beautiful double rainbow :: possibly the most beautiful, clearest, sharpest rainbow I have ever seen
2263. post-rain sunset
2264. a great first game of the season for Rebekah's soccer team
2265. last day of school
2266. a tangible, almost immediate answer to the sincere prayer of an 11-year-old :: thank you Lord!
2267. great, wonderful, fabulous, caring, excellent, passionate teachers
2268. having Luis {our basement contractor/carpenter} join us for our last-day-of-school BBQ
2269. four kids with check-ups at the dentist and zero cavities!
2270. Rebekah's first shift at the library
2271. a Saturday morning family walk {before it got unbearably hot}
2272. a freshly mowed lawn
2273. much-needed rain
2274. stopping in time to not hit any of the 3 deer that tried to cross the road right in front of our van. in the dark. in the pouring rain!
2275. a good run, despite the heat
2276. kids literally COVERED -- head to toe -- in dirt!
2277. godly, encouraging parenting commiseration

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

twenty


Twenty months already. That's closer to 2 than I would like to admit. These days Sara is always on the move, gets into everything, LOVES to be outside, is quite opinionated, still loves her dad, still doesn't sleep through the night most nights, is getting a couple more teeth, has a diaper rash {and has for WAY too long} that I can't seem to get rid of completely, eats like she has a hollow leg and gets cuter by the minute. She also talks up a storm! Some of her newer words are ::
  • Becky {for Rebekah}
  • nigh-nigh
  • ball
  • happy
  • hola
  • morning
  • Luis {Luis is the Spanish-speaking contractor/carpenter working on our basement project -- so "Hola" and "Morning" are usually followed by "Luis" . . . and said over and over and over again so that it's surprising Luis can get anything done at all. She also says "Luis" whenever she hears the air compressor come on, or the nail gun fire, or the saw turn on, or screws going in to the wall or a hammer pounding or any other loud noise, for that matter. Whether Luis is here that day or not, he gets credit for all the noise these days!}
  • birdie
  • Joe Joe
  • van
  • please
  • up
  • dress
  • off
  • belly
  • Haddon
  • bus

She's a funny girl . . . and she knows it. She says "beep" when she burps or toots and then proceeds to giggle. That gets quite the reaction out of her siblings, so I'm sure that "trick" will be around a while. She has also just recently started to sing along to music. She has a couple words in a few songs that she knows and comes in with her few select words at {pretty much} the appropriate times. It'll be interesting to see how she changes with all the kids home for the summer. Hopefully she'll still manage to get a little down-time, even with all the activity that will be going on around here the next three months!


Friday, June 8, 2012

school's out for summer

Well, we officially have an 8th grader, a 6th grader, a 5th grader and a 2nd grader . . . oh, and also a 4-year-old-preschooler and an extra-cute toddler! Where on earth did that school year go? It seems like it just began. For the most part, everyone had a good year. The report cards, although not perfect, were good and showed hard work from our crew. Think what they could do if they were only children {or even one in a family with 2 or 3 or even 4 kids} and their parents actually helped them with their homework and did other parental things like making them practice their spelling words . . .  I guess they'll never know how that would be.
last day of 7th grade

Rebekah, Savannah, Brita and another Savannah :: right before their last couple hours as 5th graders

what greeted Joey and his classmates as they walked into their classroom

Lydia and her FABULOUS teacher Mrs. Schroeder

Joey and Mrs. Norgon {who also taught 1st grade to Rebekah and Lydia}

Rebekah and Mr. Hausman {who has a daughter named Rebekah -- same spelling even :: those 2 were a wonderful student-teacher match}

some of our very favorite teachers chattin' it up after the buses all pulled away and most of the students had cleared :: we are blessed with a WAY-above-average staff at Falcon

It was a great school year, and now we're excited for the change of pace and activities that summer brings! So, that's a wrap on the 2011-2012 school year. We are so thankful for all it held for each of our kids and for us as a family!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

double digits

"I'm this many!"

brand new Lydia 6.6.02

Lydia Joy is 10! That means that half our kids are now in double digits. I remember the day she was born as if it were way less than an entire decade ago. She and Jacob were our only non-St. John's-born kiddos. Lydia was born at United. Rebekah was still a baby (just a bit more than 14 months old) and Jacob had recently turned 3. Our lives were a bit crazy, as you might imagine, with 3 kids 3 and under.

As a baby Lydia slept lots, but would ONLY sleep in her bed. I felt like nearly ever moment we were at home, she was in her bed :: get her up in the morning, feed her breakfast, bring Jacob to preschool, come home and put her down for a nap, pluck her out of her crib sound asleep, pick Jacob up from preschool, feed the kids lunch, put her down for another nap, wake her up when Dad got home, feed the family dinner and put her to bed for the night. But if we traveled away from our home, and her crib, she wouldn't sleep a wink. And she wouldn't sleep in the car either. We went on a LONG driving vacation over her 2nd birthday and she went nearly 48-hours straight without sleep during the first leg of our trip. Finally, that second night she slept and has been find sleeping away from home ever since. But that 48 hours is one I do not want to repeat ever again, I can tell you that!


with her GG who brought her birthday cupcakes

with one of her birthday gifts

at 3 months or so

just a week or so old
Lydia was one of our more challenging children for years, but has really mellowed out in the past year or so into a really sweet girl.

Here is a funny Lydia story from the other day that just makes me love her all the more :: we had gotten a bag of hand-me-down clothes from a friend and in it was a black t-shirt for Sara with a heart and "gap" in script-y letters on the front. Lydia says to me, "What does that say on Sara's shirt?". I said, "Gap." She responded with, "That's what I thought, but what does that mean?" Totally made my day that she has no idea why a shirt would say "Gap" on the front. I told her (since she wasn't aware) that Gap was the name of a clothing store. This may come as a shock to any of you who knew me, say, in high school, when I could think of nothing better than having a job at The Gap and loved when my clothes advertised where they had come from. But, as it turns out, I have grown up a tad since then. Pretty much my kids wear hand-me-downs (which are SUCH a blessings!), thrifted clothes, occasionally new stuff from Target and things that their Grandma buys them . . . you know, for occasions when they should all coordinate, since coordinating hand-me-downs for 6 are a bit hard to come by!

Happy 10th Birthday Lydia! You add lots of fun to our family and we are so thankful for you.

Monday, June 4, 2012

multitude monday


Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that is a favorite of mine. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing, gifted writer and an inspiration!

"One Thousand Gifts"::
2229. a calm-ish week
2230. paint colors chosen
2231. carpet chosen
2232.  helpful flooring consultants who keep us from making decisions we will probably regret later
2233. unexpected fabulous deals {a new exterior light for $0.01. can't really beat that!}
2234. celebrating my mom on her birthday
2235. Sara saying "Happy Ama" over and over and over again on my mom's birthday
2236. scheduling Rebekah's first shift at "work". so exciting!!
2237. the 1st grade play {so adorable and very funny}
2238. perfect type-casting :: Joey as Chicken Little
2239. the volunteer breakfast at school :: one of my favorite mornings of the year
2240. winning a door prize at the volunteer breakfast {$15 Panera gift card}
2241. date night with Rebekah :: Chatterbox Pub, Barnes & Noble, Patina, Half Price Books and Starbucks. so fun!
2242. scooping ice cream all afternoon at a grad party for my friend's daughter :: how did we get to this lifestage already? my peers have kids going off to college. i wonder how many grad parties i will help with in the next nearly 20 years. maybe let's not think about that too hard, actually. i'm tired enough already!
2243. friends
2244. a night of crafting :: I feel so much more me when I create things!
2245. the last week of school!
2246. new couch and rug all ready to freshen up the living room as soon as the sheetrock dust all settles
2247. perfectly lovely weather
2248. the power of music
2249. kids workshop at Home Depot :: a pleasant surprise
2250. basement shopping at IKEA {and some yummy meatballs, because you can't really go to IKEA and not have some meatballs}

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.